Kingdom Hearts: Game's End
by supercomputer276
Summary: Half a year after KH2, Sora and Riku are called in to stop a new wave of Heartless and Nobodies on a distant world. However, the new organization has taken many measures to make sure they won't be stopped, and the worlds along the way are quite special...
1. Prolouge: Intrigued

**Kingdom Hearts: Game's End**

**Prolouge: Intrigued**

The room was pitch-black. It was late, and in a very deep cave, it was especially dark. The only light was the glow of the many computer monitors before the lone figure before them.

Through eyes coated in dark glasses, the small figure, covered head to toe in pink fur, watched the images as they flashed by on the monitors, absorbing every kilobyte of data in seconds. As he fed on more data, his crave for even more information grew.

_These creatures…_ he thought as he watched. _The Heartless… the Nobodies… They intrigue me… Why is it said that Nobodies do not exist? Are they mirages, realistic tricks of the mind? But how then could everyone experience the exact same thing? Obviously there's more than what Xeanhort's and Ansem the Wise's reports have to say…_

_Yes, my weaker self,_ another voice, similar to the figure's but darker and more ominous than his own, echoed through his soul. _There most definitely is more than what those near-sighted fools have uncovered._

_You… How are you…_

_You're tapping into the darkness… The darkness that I crave oh so much… But you may rest easy, my weaker self... This accursed seal has not yet been broken… I will need much more strength to do that…_

_A prisoner speaking through the bars of his cage then…_

_Correct._ That word was spoken bitterly, as if it were a dripping acid. It did not like being trapped, but it had no choice in the matter.

The furry figure returned his attention to the monitors. _Why? Why are most of them so weak?! All of them, smacked down by a teenage boy with a giant key. Pathetic! I can most certainly do better than that! I can create Heartless, Nobodies that no one, not even an ace fighter, could destroy in a million years!_

_I like how you think, my weaker self. But be careful that you don't seep yourself in darkness too long, or I will be the very _least_ of your worries._

_I know, man. Shut up already._


	2. Chapter 1: A Date with Destiny

**Kingdom Hearts: Game's End**

**Chapter 1: A Date with Destiny**

Sort was still a young man, only half a year after the fall of Organization XIII, wearing the outfit the three good fairies had given him. Life was generally peaceful. He and Riku kept in shape with mock battles, Kingdom Key vs. Way to the Dawn Kairi joined in on occasion using the Keyblade that Riku gave her, which she named Blossoming Oath, but not often. The three of them sometimes went adventuring with Wakka, Tidus, and Selphie just to see what other secrets were on the islands.

Today, Sora was relaxing on the beach, lying down on the shore and listening to the sounds of the surf and the sea breeze overhead. The sun was shining in his eyes, but he didn't open them very much, instead preferring to lie down and think about his adventures over the past couple of years. He missed Donald and Goofy, but they had to return to Disney Castle with King Mickey. It was a sad but unavoidable parting. Many nights afterward, Sora wished to hear his friends again.

"Sora!"

His eyes flew open. When turned toward the sound of the voice, he saw two figures running towards him. He recognized them instantly.

"Donald! Goofy!" Sora cried as he clamored to his feet. "What are you guys doing here?"

"It's an emergency!" Donald quacked.

"We found out that a lot of Heartless and Nobodies have been appearing on a distant world," Goofy explained. "Thankfully, they don't seem to have spread to any other worlds."

"The King went ahead to scout around and stop more from being made," Donald continued. "We were sent to get you and then meet him there."

"Which world is it?" Sora asked out of curiosity.

"We don't know," Goofy replied. "It's really far away and we've ever never established contact with it."

"What's going on?"

The three old friends turned to see Riku and Kairi approach them.

"Save Heartless and Nobodies popped up on some far-flung world," Sora replied, "They were stopping by to pick me up."

"Mind if I come along?" Riku asked. "It'd give me something to do besides beat you all the time."

"Excuse me?!" Sora retaliated. "I've beaten you more than the other way around!"

"You've got that backwards!" Riku shouted back.

"Guys, both of you have won eighteen matches out of thirty-six," Kairi informed them. "You're perfectly even."

"You were keeping track?!" both of them asked at once.

"Yeah, because I knew you guys would argue over it eventually."

"Hurry it up already!" Donald quacked impatiently. "The longer we dawdle, the more Heartless there's gonna be! Bring Riku; we'll need all the help we can get!"

"OK, let's go then!" Sora called. The four of them headed off to board the gummi ship.

"Be careful!" Kairi called after them.

OoOoO

The pink-furred figure sat in a large-backed chair at a desk in a dimly-lit room. He was wearing a pair of small black-tinted glasses, white gloves with purple cuffs, a black shirt with a purple mushroom on it, tan pants with a blue belt and a grey buckle, and a pair of white sneakers. The only light came from the fireplace just past the desk. The door in was behind the chair, giving the whole room a Dr. Claw feeling.

On the desk was a two-way television monitor, a small board of multi-colored buttons, and a laptop computer. Curled up on the table next to them was Terri, a Bouncywild Heartless that SC treated as his own private pet. The only visible difference between this particular Heartless and others was the emblem on its chest. Instead of the black and red emblem shared by all Emblem Heartless, this one retained its red outline but was filled with white, and resembled what looked like a cross between the Heartless and Nobody emblems, with three points coming from the top and sides of the main heart and most of the bottom symbol coming from the Nobody half of the mix with the exception of one little extension in the middle that came from the Heartless half. Currently, she was sleeping, the two yellow dots missing from the blacks of her eyes.

The monitor blared to life and the head of a red turtle wearing a black helmet materialized on the screen. "Boss, a gummi ship has just departed from Destiny Islands and is heading this way," the turtle reported.

The fox raised an eyebrow. "Really?" he replied as he absentmindingly scratched behind Terri's ear, gently as so not to wake her. "Who's on board?"

"That Sora kid and some of his friends," the turtle answered. Mug shots appeared on the right side of the screen of Sora, Riku, Donald, and Goofy.

The fox had anticipated this. "If they get here before the Ultimatum Heartless is completed, all of my plans will be ruined," he reminded his lackey. "Send the Volcano to intercept them, and send them somewhere where they won't interfere!"

"Yes, Boss," the turtle saluted as the monitor switched off.

OoOoO

Black looked good on him. Mickey couldn't help it. Black also helped him blend in with the darkness he needed for a mission such as this.

From the information he had gathered, the world that was filling up with Heartless and Nobodies, the world he was in the middle of infiltrating, was called "Mount Majesty" by the locals. So far, most of the world consisted of farmland filled with a wide variety of fresh organic fruit. When he arrived, he enjoyed a snack of apples and grapefruits. However, the most important part of the landscape was a small range of three large purple mountains. The largest was in the center, and halfway up, a large classic jack-o-lantern face smiled evilly over the farmland below.

This was where Mickey was now. The mountain's interior was all carved out and transformed into a high-tech base of operations. Most of the bottom half was one large cavern with a small stadium called the "Mushroom Bowl" in the middle. The upper caverns were a series of hallways connecting various rooms, mostly bunk rooms and research labs. One was decorated to resemble a small casino, while another was equipped with an entertainment center and various video game consoles. A few even looked like working holodecks from Star Trek. He didn't see any rooms relating to his search, although a few rooms were locked and he couldn't call his Keyblade without others noticing. Several varieties of Heartless and Nobody roamed the corridors, everything from Shadows to Large Bodies.

After several hours, the King stumbled across a lab containing very interesting artifacts indeed. Large cylinders filled with a strange neon green substance that was half gel and half liquid lined the walls, glowing gently yet sinisterly. In the center was a bigger cylinder, none of the green stuff but several robotic arms were assembling a small structure within that resembled…

"A Keyblade!" Mickey gasped. He quickly clapped his hands over his mouth and looked around to make sure no one had heard. The details of the Keyblade had not yet been attached, but it was a Keyblade nevertheless. Mickey was confused and curious. Why would whoever was creating all these Heartless and Nobodies try and create a Keyblade? To keep them in line, to rule with fear? He approached the control panel at the base of the central cylinder and looked on the attached screen.

Game's End

Assembling…

47% complete OOOOOO-------

Running time: 10:47:08 09 10 11 12…

ECT: 23:06:48 47 46 45 44…

"Game's End?" Mickey muttered to himself. Is that what the Keyblade in the cylinder was going to be called? He looked at the picture of the finished product on the right side of the monitor. The handle loop, the piece around the handle, was very wide, coming to points at the ends. Two more pieces closer the handle curved through, cutting the ends into triangles. A long brown pole extended from the handle to make the blade itself, and it was topped with an orange symbol that looked like an asterisk with the top line missing. As a sort of decoration, where the handle connected to the pole and in the middle of the orange symbol there were purple mushrooms. Overall, it looked odd, but powerful.

"Possible intruder detected. Identify yourself immediately."

Mickey whipped around and sliced at the Armored Knight Heartless that had snuck up behind him, surprised by the somewhat mechanical voice. He was also surprised when the Heartless didn't disappear, but was only thrown back a short distance.

"Presence of enemy Keyblade detected," the voice continued. "Intruder determined to be an enemy. Beginning threat neutralization." What alerted Mickey the most was that the voice was coming from the general direction of the Armored Knight, which was surprising as almost all Heartless couldn't talk. He swung his golden Keyblade at the Heartless again, but it parried and threw it back.

"Surrender, intruder. Resistance is futile." The Heartless swung its sword at Mickey, but he dodge-rolled back to avoid it.

"Never!" the mouse shouted as he leaped forward with a large slash of the Keyblade, hitting the enemy square in the chest. The Knight stumbled back from the force of the blow and regained its composure in the open doorway. It then noticed a large red button next to the door on the wall and slammed it down. Red lights began to flash and alarm sounded in the distance.

"Uh oh," Mickey squeaked.

Almost immediately, Shadows and Soldiers filed in past the Armored Knight and surrounded the King. Among them was another type of Heartless he had never seen before. It looked a lot like a Shadow and yet a lot different. Its fox-shaped head was one-and-a-half times the size of its body, its only limbs were two round black balls for hands, and a large fluffy fox tail flapped behind it. Also, it was floating in midair with virtually no effort at all.

Mickey swatted at the Heartless with the Keyblade, but there were too many, too tough, too strong, too smart. Eventually the Shadows started to dog pile on him. Endless questions ran through his mind as he faded into unconsciousness.

Who had created these monsters? Why did he or she create them? Why were they so much tougher and smarter than usual Heartless? How did they get so strong? How would even Sora be able to stop them?

How….

How…………….

How…………………………..

H……….. ow……………………………………………………………………………

A/N: an image of Game's End can be found in my deviantART account; a link to my DA page is in my profile.


	3. Chapter 2: Intercept

**Kingdom Hearts: Game's End**

**Chapter 2: Intercept**

The gummi ship Donald and Goofy had arrived at the Destiny Islands in was Highwind Level 5. Its effectiveness in traveling and combat matched that of its crew.

With Donald, Goofy, Sora, and Riku aboard, Highwind departed from Destiny Islands and set a course for the distant Heartless-ravaged world. On route, they passed several worlds they had visited in adventures past: Traverse Town, Wonderland, Hallow Bastion / Radiant Garden, Olympus Coliseum, Halloween Town, Atlantica, the Beast's Castle, Port Royal…

"Hey Sora, you alright?" Riku's voice knocked Sora out of his recollections.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just reminiscing."

"Don't lose yourself. You'll need all your focus once we get there."

Sora nodded, but said nothing.

As the ship sailed on, it left the familiar worlds behind and ones Sora never dreamed of seeing flashed by the window. One looked like a large red mushroom with two contrasting castles on opposite ends. Another had gigantic blue oceans, a large city, and a space station in orbit around it. Yet another was simply a large yellow star with two faint rings circling it.

"Wow, the worlds out here look really weird," Goofy commented as he pointed to one that looked like a large field with a forest, a concession stand, and a grassless backyard.

"The one the Heartless are on is probably weirder," Donald replied as he sat at the helm. Their destination was still a blip of light out in space. A larger blip, but a blip nevertheless.

"What do you think that world will be like?" Sora asked.

"Probably a lot like Hallow Bastion," Riku replied. "A plentiful world that darkness has eaten away at. Once we've destroyed all the Heartless and Nobodies, we might have to stay awhile to help locals repair the damage."

The sound of a pulsing "blip" echoed around the room.

"There's another ship coming towards us," Donald announced, pointing at the radar on his console. A red dot was moving down from the top of the screen.

The other three gathered around him. "Is it a Heartless or a Nobody?" Sora asked.

"Neither," Donald replied.

"Another gummi ship?" Riku suggested. "Maybe it's the King."

"It does seem to have come from the world we're going to," Donald responded, "but if it's a gummi ship, it's really really big for one."

"Looks like it's close enough to see out the window now," Goofy commented.

All four of them turned to look out the windshield – and reeled in shock.

Donald was right. It was big. Really _really_ BIG. So big, Donald had to stop the ship.

It was in the shape of an old-fashioned sailing ship, but with not a mast or sail to its name. It was made of large red planks, and strange black cannons lined each side of the deck. There was an escort team of four smaller ships with a similar build that maneuvered around it. Two large engines, afterburners ablaze, stood out the most, strapped to the underside of the hull.

"Look at the engines!" Sora cried, pointing. There was a strange emblem on the engines printed in what looked like bright purple paint.

"What kind of symbol is that?" Donald asked no one in particular.

"It looks sorta like the emblem on the Heartless and the emblem on the Nobodies combined together," Goofy noted.

"In that case, we better take it out!" Sora said as he took his seat at the weapons console. "Arming all weapons!"

As this conversation was happening, the red ship had sailed a circle around the Highwind and moved between the gummi ship and the world they were flying to, hiding the large ball of light behind it. A small panel in the wooden ship slid open and a small projectile flew from it towards the Highwind.

"Blast it!" Donald quacked. "Before it hits us!"

Sora played the dashboard like a piano, but not a missile fired nor laser discharged. "Nothing's responding!" he reported.

The projectile slammed onto the cockpit's windshield. It looked like an average-sized television monitor, which blared to life to display static. Two cylindrical speakers folded out of the sides of the screen and attached to the bridge, filling the cockpit with the static sound to match the image. A microphone on the bottom and a camera on the top followed suit. Once all four appendages were secure, the static on the screen cleared to reveal the upper body of a red turtle wearing a black helmet.

"Greetings, Keyblade Master and company," the turtle spoke to them. "You are entering restricted space. You have two minutes to turn around and head back where you came from or the Game Over will not be responsible for the consequences."

"The Game Over?" Sora thought out loud.

"Who are you?" Riku demanded.

"I am 666." the turtle replied. "I am the leader of the Game Over's Mushroomian Division and current active Heartbody Division Head."

"Heartbody?" Goofy asked.

"Our name for you universe," 666 replied. "Now leave immediately. You have a minute and a half left."

"The Game Over's been creating all the Heartless, haven't they?" Donald angerly quacked.

"And the Nobodies too!" Goofy added.

666 chuckled. "Yes, our forces in this universe do consist primarily of Heartless and Nobodies. The Heartbody Division is hiring officers at this time if anyone is interested..."

"No way!" Sora replied. "We're going over to your world and stomping out all of them!"

"Oh I'd love to see you try," 666 mocked.

"Then try we will!" Donald announced as he hit a few buttons on his console. The Highwind dived in an attempt to pass under the enemy ship.

"Naughty naughty," 666 replied as he pressed a few buttons of his own. More panels in the bottom half of the ship opened up and the muzzles of large cannons stuck out. They fired and giant bullets with angry eyes and arms came out and homed in on the gummi ship.

"Look out!" Goofy yelled unnecessarily as the bullets hit and blasted them back. Everyone held on tightly to something as the ship tumbled backwards.

In spite of the attacks, the monitor remained firmly attached to the windshield. "One minute," 666 informed them. "And tell you what: if you leave now, I might just be able to free your mouse friend."

"Huh?" they all shouted. "You have the King?!"

666 held up a photograph of Mickey in a straitjacket flanked by two Armored Knights keeping their swords pointing at him. "Eyes don't lie. He was caught snoopin' around a top secret area. Boy, won't _his_ Heartless be a great asset to our ranks..."

"You leave the King alone!" Donald quacked.

"You have fourty-five seconds left," 666 stated. "Leave now, and we'll send His Majesty home."

"How do we know you won't double-cross us?" Riku asked.

"You don't," the reply came. "But he sure as hell ain't getting loose if you stick around."

Sora pounded on the weapon controls but nothing happened.

"Stop struggling; we already remotely jammed your weapons. Thirty seconds."

"We need to get past them!" Donald cried as he grabbed the helm. Highwind dashed up and set off over the red ship.

"You just don't learn, do you?" 666 replied omniously. The deck of the ship had several cannons on it, which aimed up and fired more large bullets at the gummi ship.

"What'll we do?" Goofy cried.

"Floor it, that's what!" Donald shouted. "Activating Warp-G!"

"Buckle up everyone!" Riku called. Everyone on Highwind got to a seat if they weren't already in one and strapped themselves down.

"Here we go!" Donald cried as he pulled down a lever.

The Highwind shot away, over the ship... and then suddenly stopped. Everyone was thrown forward but remained in their seats.

"What happened?" Sora asked Donald.

"I don't know!" the duck replied. "The Warp-G's running at full power, but we're not going anywhere!"

"Fifteen seconds," 666 smirked.

"What did you do, 666?!" Sora demanded.

"If you're so interested in knowing..." The camera detached from the windshield and shot out to view the whole gummi ship. Also, the image on the screen changed to the camera's view.

Everyone was shocked to the see the Highwind had been grabbed by a giant red-gloved hand connected by a metal tube to the enemy ship. The ship, Warp-G blazing, was struggling to resume its course, the glove's grip never slipping.

"What the-?" Goofy started, but 666's voice from the monitor interrupted.

"Ten... Nine... Eight..."

"Get us loose!" Sora shouted.

"Seven... Six..."

"I'm trying!" Donald quacked as he wrestled with the helm controls.

"Five... Four... Three..."

"We're doomed!" Goof cried desperately.

"Two... One..."

The screen changed back to 666 and the camera snapped back into place like a tape measure. "Time's up," he announced. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

The hand began to squeeze. Everyone on board screamed as the Highwind began to buckle.

"Fare badly, Keybearer," 666 spat as the monitor exploded.

The hand stopped only when the ship resembled a ball of space junk. It then curled its tube into the enemy vessel while keeping itself in place, resembling an at-ready slingshot in concept. Then it let go, flinging the ball and its screaming occupants spinning into the starry void of space.

OoOoO

666 grinned as he watched, using an external camera, the Highwind's wreck fly through space. The mission was a smashing, or rather _crushing_, success.

An icon beeped in the corner. _The boss is calling_, he thought. He hit a button and the screen changed to show the pink fox sitting in his chair. Terri was in his lap and rubbing up against his torso much like how a cat would rub against one's leg, although it looked somewhat awkward as she was about as tall as said torso.

"666, report," the fox ordered.

"Mission accomplished, sir," the turtle replied. "The Keyblade master and his little group won't be bothering us for a while. We managed to destroy their engines and hurl them into space."

"Excellent job, 666," the boss praised as he scratched Terri behind her ear, resulting in her soft cooing. "Everything may continue on schedule. Return to Mt. Majesty; I request your assistance in interrogating our captive."

"Right away, Boss," 666 acknowledged before hanging up.


	4. Chapter 3: In the Hall of the Koopa King

A/N: Now that the site is hosting crossover fictions separate from others that be good little stories and stay in one franchise, this brings up the debate of whether or not this story is a crossover fic. In my opinion, it's not. Think about it; the Kingdom Hearts series itself is pretty much one giant crossover in a sense. How else do you explain Donald and Goofy in the same universe as Cloud and Leon? I'm doing something similar, except instead of Disney movie and cartoon worlds, I'm using other video games. Besides, even if it did come in as a crossover fic (which I am willing to accept if necessary), how exactly will I categorize it? While the Mario series does play a more prominent role in the story, the Game Over originating from the Mario world of Pilt, a good handful of the worlds in this story aren't even from Nintendo. There's no one set other franchise that crosses with Kingdom Hearts here. So, for now at least, I'm keeping this as a normal Kingdom Hearts story. (Although if it was categorized under crossovers, it'd be with Mario most likely).

Oh yeah, and my apologies if the fight scene at the end sucks.

**Kingdom Hearts: Game's End**

**Chapter 3: In the Hall of the Koopa King**

Sora moaned as he recovered consciousness. It was a while before he remembered why he blacked out in the first place.

Once his brain had stopped spinning, he began to come to some conclusions. One: since the ship had stopped spinning like a possessed top, he assumed they had crash-landed on some far-flung world. Two: his stomach was a lot steadier than he expected it to be, so he'd been out for a rather lengthy amount of time. Three: the cockpit had effectively halved in size, so it would be safe to say that whatever world they hit, they hit hard.

After resting for a bit, he tried standing up. Not too hard, but he had to bend over slightly to keep his head from hitting the ceiling.

A quick visual scan of the bridge allowed Sora to realize that he was currently alone. He cupped his hands around his mouth. "Riku! Donald! Goofy!" he called out.

A response; a very faint one. It sounded like Donald shouting "Sora!"

"Hold on, Donald!" Sora shouted again. "I'll go to you!"

The trip across the crippled bridge was easier than expected, except for occasion hitting his head on a low part of ceiling or stumbling over a high part of the floor. After a short time, he found his friends, battered but alive, gathered in front of the hatch leading outside the Highwind.

"Is everyone OK?" he asked.

"We're lucky," Riku replied. "No one has any broken bones. We've all got some nasty cuts, though; nothing a Potion or two won't fix, thankfully."

"So... that's a yes?"

Riku rolled his eyes and sighed. "Yes, it is."

Goofy was using one of his smaller shields to punch at the hatch door. "It's stuck," he reported. "I could use some help over here."

Riku and Sora hurried over ans summoned their Keyblades. They jabbed at the door, trying to pierce the hard metal. It took several minutes before the hatch cracked open a small amount.

"Whew!" Donald gasped upon feeling the small breeze from the hole. "That's some hot air!"

"A dry heat, I'd say," Riku replied. He attacked the sides of the hole to try and make it bigger. Sora and Goofy followed suit.

Eventually, they carved the hole big enough for everyone to clamber out of the Highwind's ruin and see where they had landed. They were in the courtyard of a large castle made of dark gray stone. The ground was hard and coated with red dust, and the sky was blacker than night could ever hope to be. storm clouds were visible on the horizon, spitting lighting at nearby mountaintops. It wasn't humid so much as it was hot, as Riku had claimed. The crushed-up Highwind had hit the ground and an angle and slid to a stop, judging by the earth that had been dug up in its wake.

"Our ship!" Donald cried, staring at the ruin. "It's wrecked! How are we supposed to rescue the King if we're stranded on this world?! We're doomed!"

Goofy was almost idiotically calm. "Where is this world anyway?" he asked as he glanced around.

Sora did the same. "Looks like a devil's world," he predicted.

"Hey, punks!" a voice growled behind them.

Everyone turned around, drawing their weapons as they did so. A large beast that resembled a nasty-looking green turtle with a spiked shell and red hair and horns was lumbering towards them, having apparently emerged from the castle's front door. Sharp claws and even sharper teeth gleamed brightly considering the lack of a visible light source.

"Stop moving!" Sora shouted. "We know how to use these!"

The turtle stopped. There was a pause before it chuckled.

"What are you going to do? Swat me with toothpicks?"

"Toothpicks?!" Sora replied. "This 'toothpick' I have has taken out bigger monsters than you!"

It chuckled again. "Oh yeah? Did any of 'em monsters of yours do this?" It reached its head back and snapped it forward, spitting out a large fireball. The group scattered to avoid it. This caused the monster to laugh. "Looks like my courtyard's been infested with lawn snakes!" It turned and stopped its way back into the castle. "I'll let the security guys handle 'em. I'm feeling a little weary today." It pulled open the large wooden door and entered, slamming it shut behind him.

The group emerged from hiding and regathered.

"Who or what was that?" Goof asked.

"A Heartless?" Donald suggested.

Riku shook his head. "Heartless aren't capable of reason, remember? If it was, it would've kept attacking us. Besides, the Heartless emblem wasn't on it anywhere I could see. Neither was the Nobody emblem. It's probably a native of this world and lives in that castle."

"In that case, I suggest we get off its property," Sora spoke. "I don't like the sound of 'security guys.'"

"But what about the Highwind?" Goofy whined.

"We can't take it with us, Goofy," Riku replied. "She was a good ship, but she's gone. Ease your mind; she's in a better place now." Inwardly, he was sick to his stomach from all the baby talk, but tried his best not to show it.

"There's King Bowser's intruders! Open fire!"

They to see some smaller turtles dressed in suits of armor aiming cannons at them. "Cover!" Riku shouted. Every ducked behind the Highwind as explosions sounded around them.

"Who do those guys think they are?!" Donald quacked angrily.

"Security." Riku replied in a "no duh" kind of way.

"You think King Bowser was the fire-breathing guy we just say?" Goofy asked.

"Most likely," Sora replied. "And I think that he works for this Game Over organization."

"What makes you say that?" Donald asked.

"Look at what they're firing at us. It's the same thing that 666 attacked the Highwind with."

"That does make some sense..." Riku conceded.

"Goofy, you got a really large shield you can use?" Sora asked his friend.

Goofy pulled out his large Defender shield. "Yep."

"Good. You can go first and cover us."

Goofy stood up and walked out of he safety of the Highwind's remains, holding Defender up. Upon seeing one of their targets out in the open, the armored turtles focused their aim. The large bullets slammed into the shield and exploded with fury, but Goofy easily held his ground. "A-yuk! It's working!"

The others came out behind Goofy. "OK, Game Over," Sora shouted at the enemy, "bring it on!"

"Hold your fire!" the large turtle's voice boomed. The armored turtles stopped firing, and the figure that our heroes had guessed was Bowser lumbered into view on the battlements. "What was that you said about the Game Over?"

"You heard us!" You're the guys creating Heartless and breaking the world order!" Donald quacked.

"What are you talking about? We're not part of the Game Over. In fact, we're one of their biggest enemies!"

"How do we know we can trust you?" Riku demanded.

Bowser leapt from the battlements and landed in front of the castle. "You four better come inside. We need to do some talking..."

_**Kastle Koopa**_

Bowser led the group down the hallways of the castle. The interior had a red carpeted floor an the walls were a lighter shade of gray than the outside. The encountered several smaller turtles in a variety of uniforms, but after a look from the king, they didn't make any hostile moves towards them.

Bowser stopped in front of a large door made of red wood with a golden-painted frame. He led them inside to what resembled a conference room. Red banners decorated with green trim hung from the walls, and in the center was a long table with enough chairs to seat fourteen, five to the sides and one on each of the short ends.

After closing the door and gesturing for Sora and his friends to stay where they were, the big turtle moved to the corner of the room and pulled down a speaker tube. "Attention, Koopalings," he said into it. He silently counted to three, then roared. "I SAID ATTENTION!! Mandatory family meeting in the conference room in five minutes! Be there or else! Oh and Kamek, you come too. That is all." He pushed the tube back up into place. At that moment, a chorus of faint moans, groans, and "oh man"s echoed about the room.

"Who are the Koopalings?" Goofy asked.

"My kids," Bowser replied plainly. He gestured for them to follow him and stomped over to the other side of the room, where he sat down in the almost throne-like chair on the end. It was much larger and more elegant and well-decorated than the other chairs. "Take a seat," he ordered. The group sat; Donald and Goofy took the two seats closest to Bowser on the turtle's left, while Sora and Riku sat on the king's right.

After a minute or so of silence, the door opened and another turtle slipped into the room. He was draped in a large powder-blue robe with a hood, perched a pair of large glasses on his nose, carried a wand with a red orb on the tip, and appeared to be well aged. He coughed as he shuffled up the length of the table, but stopped halfway upon noticing the guests.

"Hm... don't recall ever seeing you four before," he muttered. He sounded as old as he looked, but it still had a little spark of energy.

"I'm Sora," the Keyblade master introduced. "This is Riku, Donald and Goofy." The friends waved hello when their names were called.

"Guests of the King, I suppose?" the turtle responded. "I'm Kamek, King Bowser's most trusted advisor." He sat next to Riku. "So what brings you to Kastle Koopa?"

Before Riku could respond, Bowser did. "We'll be talking about that during the meeting, Kamek. In the meantime, let's get some of the basic info out of the way. I'm King Bowser Koopa; I'm the king of Dark Land. This is Kastle Koopa, where I rule and where my family lives. We usual don't let complete strangers in; the only reasons we're not filling you up with Bullet Bills is because we have some misunderstandings to clear up."

"Oh you're very hospitable," Donald muttered.

"I heard that, you walking entrée. We just have a lot of enemies, is all. I can't have spies from the Mushroom Kingdom running around my castle."

"Mushroom Kingdom?" Riku asked.

"Yeah, it's a neighboring kingdom. I've been trying to conquer them for years to get their resources, since we're rather low on some important products. All my attempts have failed though, thanks to those goody-two-shoes the Super Mario Brothers." He growled. "Oh, it stresses me out just _thinking_ about them!"

"Calm down, Your Majesty," Kamek said as if calming a crying child. "Think of a happy place."

After a few minutes and several deep breaths, Bowser calmed down. "I'm OK, I'm OK," he reassured. "Now let's change the subject." He glanced around the room. "Where are those kids of mine already? They should've been here by now."

"May I suggest the patent-pending Koopaling call, Your Majesty?" Kamek suggested.

"I dunno... It's such an overused joke..."

"Aw come on," pleaded a curious Sora.

"Oh fine..." Bowser conceded. He leaned over the table and cupped his hand around his mouth. Then, as quietly as he possibly could, he whispered. "Ice cream."

The result was immediate. The room started shaking. Three seconds later, seven more turtles, larger than Kamek and the other turtles in the halls but smaller than Bowser, burst into the room. They stopped and looked around.

"Aw man, King Dad did it _again_!" the smallest one whined. He had a large tuff of blue hair on his head.

"Just get in your seats," Bowser growled.

"How does that work?" Riku asked as the grumbling Koopalings sat down.

"They're kids," Bowser explained. "You'll understand when you're older."

Another round of introductions commenced as Sora and his friends met the Koopalings. The one who spoke up before was the youngest, Larry, who enjoyed growing plants and spying on his family members. The next youngest, Morton, was brown and had a star-shaped scar on one eye; he enjoyed talking... a lot. The third youngest, Wendy, was the only girl; she had a pink head and wore a bow, lipstick, gold wrist bracelets, and miniature high heels; her interests seemed to cover girly things Sora and Riku just couldn't understand such as fashion. In the middle was Iggy, who had rainbow-dyed hair and large glasses with swirls on the lenses; his build was minuscule and he faintly reminded Sora of a punching bag. The third oldest looked like a bully with a shaved pink head and sunglasses; he was called Roy, and he spent his free time beating up the others, mostly Iggy. Next was Lemmy, who looked like Iggy without glasses and balanced on a blue circus ball with yellow stars. Finally, the oldest Koopaling was the brains of the outfit, with a head of poofy blue hair; his name was Ludwig, and he liked using large words that few of the others understood.

"OK, now that everyone knows everyone else, let's get down to business," Bowser announced. "I called this meeting because these four guys dropped out of the sky this morning and they may know something we don't about one of the Koopa Klan's greatest enemies." He turned his head to Sora. "OK, kid, start talking about your encounter with the Game Over."

After those assembled had stopped whispering amongst themselves, Sora and friends told their story. They told them about ho they were from a different world. They told them about the Heartless and Nobodies and that the Game Over was producing them. They told them about their one-sided encounter with 666 and how he wrecked their ship.

"Sounds like they've had a rough time," Iggy noticed once they finished.

"Certainly seems that way," Lemmy agreed.

"Any enemy of the Game Over is a friend of mine," Bowser spoke. Then he quickly added, "On occasion."

"So you can help us get to their world?" Riku replied.

"We can get you to somewhere that can take you the rest of the way," the Koopa King replied. "Beyond that, though, all we can provide is some information."

"What can you tell us?" Sora asked.

"May I, Your Majesty?" Kamek asked.

"Go ahead, Kamek," Bowser granted.

"Thank you." He turned to the four visitors. "The Game Over is an organization that has the stated goal of taking over the multiverse."

"What's a multiverse?" Donald asked.

"Well, you know of the worlds you've visited in your travels and others that you haven't. Together, all those worlds make up the universe. And there are multiple universes, each with their own worlds. Together, these universes make up the multiverse. It's also been known sometimes as the macroverse.

"Anyways, the Game Over's goal is to conquer all universes. I haven't heard of the Divisions before, but I guess that each one handles the taking over of a certain universe. The leader of the Game Over is supercomputer276, also known as Yosie. That red turtle you described is his second-in-command, 666 the Fire Brother, a type of Koopa. Yosie creates his underlings through a special computer program, much like how you say Heartless can be artificially created, and what species he creates depends on what he's trying to conquer. For example, he'd send local creatures such as Goombas and Koopas to attack this castle.

"Unfortunately, that's all I know. Most of the Game Over's means and motives are unknown to me. However..."

"Oh not again..." Bowser moaned.

"There is one person that lives here that knows far more about the Game Over than anybody else outside their ranks. Her name is Karma A. Koopa."

"What does the A stand for?" Goofy asked.

"It is a conundrum that persists to this day," Ludwig answered.

Sora looked at Ludwig, his face screaming "Wha??"

"We don't know," Lemmy clarified.

"Oh..."

"Anyway," Kamek continued, "Karma is our resident expert on the Game Over. However, she insists on keeping much information secret from the rest of us. I think it's for our own protection."

"More like _their_ own protection," Bowser interrupted, standing up. "If that half-breed had told us where the Game Over's base was before it was blasted away, we would've already destroyed them!" He stomped out of the room/ Figuring the meeting was a good as over, most of the Koopalings departed as well. Only Lemmy and Ludwig remained.

"Do excuse King Bowser," Kamek said to Sora and his party. "Miss Karma confided in me that she'd thought that if the Koopa Klan were to launch an all-out attack against the Game Over's base, to use her words, we'd get creamed."

"What did Bowser mean when he said 'half-breed?'" Riku asked.

"Karma is not wholly Koopa. Her father was a Koopa, but her mother was a Yoshi. A Yoshi is a dinosaur-like creature native to our world. They're very intelligent, but most of them ally with the Mushroom Kingdom, so most residents of Dark Land look down on them. Also, there's a 'blood purity' issue. It's very complicated."

"Why doesn't Bowser just throw her out then?" Sora inquired.

"That is a very long story and one that will have to wait for another day. In a nutshell, Karma shares a special bond with Prince Ludwig known as a 'Metbond.' Attempting to separate the two would just result in grave health problems for them."

Ludwig nodded. "Karma resides in the castle attic. I will be your escort there." He stood up. "Walk this way."

The eldest Koopaling led the group out of the conference room, down the corridors, and up several flights of stairs until they reached the top floor. He was silent all the way, ignoring the gang's question about what exactly a Metbond was.

They stropped at a plain brown wooden door and Ludwig knocked on it. "Karma, are you in there?" he asked through it.

"Come in, Poofball," the feminine voice on the other side replied.

Sora held back a laugh as best he could. "'Poofball?'"

"It's a nickname, OK?" Ludwig retorted. "I don't tolerate it coming from anybody else."

He pulled opened the door and all five of them entered. The attic looked very much how an attic should look. Boxes and crates of all shapes and sizes were stacked around the room along the walls, covered in the dust of the ages. There was a large circular window opposite the door.

Several boxes were set up to support a mattress to form a makeshift bed. Sitting on the mattress was a dinosaur with a large round nose. The front of her torso had stripes down its length much like the Koopa family's shells, small claws topped her fingers and toes, gold wrist bracelets, purple sweat bands on her ankles, and long black hair tied with a long length of pink ribbon. On her back sat a spiked purple shell.

"Dear," Ludwig addressed her as they entered, "some guests wanted to see you."

"Are you charging admission again?" she replied sarcastically.

"No!" Ludwig was quick to shout. He took a moment to calm down before continuing. "This is Sora, Riku, Donald, and Goofy. They're going up against the Game Over and could use what you know."

Karma hopped to her feet and looked at Sora. "Kid, believe me when I say that the best advice for dealing with the Game Over is to not seek involvement. You don't cross them, they won't cross you."

"They've already crossed us," Sora replied seriously. "They're creating monsters that could destroy everything and kidnapped my friends' King. We have to stop them."

"Now _that_ is different," Karma replied. "Tell me what you know and I'll fill in the gaps."

Sora and the group told Karma off their encounter in deep space and what Kamek had told them about the Game Over.

"OK, there's not too many gaps to fill, but they're still there. I'll tell you what I can remember.

"The Game Over's central base is called Mt. Majesty. It's a large hallowed-out purple mountain that used to be a long way from here. Easy to see with a giant jack-o-lantern carved in the front. It's surrounded by rich farmland for thirty miles; they take fruit from there so they can feed their troops.

The Game Over hasn't attacked anywhere on Pilt – that's our planet – lately, but I don't let my guard down. There are several worlds out there they want, but I know our turn will come again eventually."

"I have a question," Sora interrupted. "You said Mt. Majesty _used_ to be far away. How is it different now?"

"About a year ago or so, a comet hit the planet and Mt. Majesty disappeared, along with several miles of farmland around it," Karma continued. "I hoped that it meant the Game Over wouldn't be able to hurt anyone ever again, but with the news of your attack, it appears the comet just turned Mt. Majesty into its own world. Most everyone believed that the Game Over was destroyed by that comet; no one is exactly sure why it disappeared how it did.

The ship that 666 attacked you in was a doomship called the G. O. S. Volcano. They have four other doomships last I knew: the blue Brainfreeze, the purple Mystic, the yellow Solarstorm, and the orange Starstruck. Each has its own unique traits; the Volcano's is its ability to hold a lot of ammunition and fire it all off at once."

"How do you know about them so much?" Donald asked suspiciously.

"I was kidnapped by them," Karma replied, looking at her feet. "Three times. Every time, the leader, Yosie, offered me a job as one of his highest-ranking officers."

"But you didn't accept," Riku guessed more than asked.

"I didn't, but I came close. Yosie rewards his officers with numerous benefits. He even has this slave girl, Panchico, he created and he never abuses her dedication to him. He can be a gentleman if you're not his enemy. And it's not like everyone here at Kastle Koopa treats me with respect. It was very tempting. It was like I was selling my soul for everything I could ever possibly need or want. He even almost managed to destroy the Metbond between Poofball and I so that there wouldn't be any excuses for turning him down."

"So how did you get out?" Donald asked.

"I found an excuse he couldn't cover: it wasn't _right_. It would go against every code of ethics I was raised on to join the Game Over. Yosie was very upset at that. Just between us, I think he has a crush on me. He sent me letters asking for a date every month or so before Mt. Majesty disappeared."

She sighed and looked up. "Sorry if I sounded kinda depressing or anything. Usually I'm a lot more cheerful, but talking about them... It always makes me feel like I missed the chance to change my life for the better."

"Like you said, you did the right thing," Riku consoled her. "You're not the first person to be tempted by the darkness."

Sora looked at his friend. Had it really been that long ago that Riku was possessed by Xeanhort's Heartless?

"Thanks, Riku," Karma thanked, smiling at him. "I suppose everyone faces the darkness at least once in their lifetimes."

Before anyone could reply, there was a knock on the door. "Who's there?" Karma called. Everyone turned to look at the door.

"It's Lemmy," the Koopaling's voice called.

"Come in, but no pranks or I'll do to you what I did to Roy two weeks ago."

The door opened and Lemmy entered, balancing on his ball like a circus performer.

"How do you do that?" Sora asked, impressed.

"A lifetime's worth of practice," the clowny Koopaling replied. "Anyways, I have a message for you four from King Dad. He wants to meet you on the roof of the castle in ten minutes."

"Why?" Riku asked.

"I think it was something about testing your strength. You look pretty beat up, though, so I suggest going down to see our doctor on the third floor. He'll get you all fixed up in a jiffy."

"Thanks," Goofy replied as he stepped out of the room, Donald on his heels.

"And thank you for the information," Sora told Karma.

"Don't mention it," Karma replied. "Just give Yosie what for."

"Will do!" He gave her a thumbs-up.

Sora and his friends went down to the third floor and found the doctor's office. The doctor, who was a round white ghost called a Boo, treated their wounds and got them back to full health in no time. Not a mark on their bodies, they then returned to the top floor and stepped through a door Lemmy was waiting next to.

After climbing a short stairway, they emerged on the roof and were quickly reminded how hot the air was outside. The roof was made of flat stone and was surrounded by darker gray ramparts. On the north side, a bronze flagpole rose high, waving a black flag with an icon that looked much like Bowser's face. An identical icon was on a circular slab that rose from the middle of the roof. Behind the slab stood the King of the Koopas.

"You're a minute late," Bowser said.

"There were a lot of stairs," Donald replied. "Have you ever considered an elevator?"

"My kids need to keep in shape for our attacks. Climbing the stairs will do them good."

"Let's cut to the chase," Riku interrupted. "Why did you want to meet us up here?"

"Lemmy said something about a test of strength," Goofy added.

"More or less," Bowser answered. "See, I've fought Yosie before, and while I've won, not only was it a long hard battle, I needed lots of help from people I don't like getting help from. And I'm the strongest of the Koopa Klan. You guys are a buncha kids."

"Hey!" Donald quacked. "Goofy and I are not kids!"

"Whatever. What I'm sayin' is any battle against the Game Over is gonna be the fight of your life. I don't care what you faced in the past; it's gonna look like Goombas compared to what they can throw at you. If you don't have the power, you won't last for five seconds.

So, let's see if you've got it!" With a loud roar, Bowser leaped into the air and slammed down on the slab, pressing it down into the roof. Suddenly, a metal gate fell down behind the group and a force field ran up along the ramparts. "Face me and show me your power!" he called at the party.

"You want it?" Sora said as his friends and him drew their weapons and got into a battle pose. "Come and get it!"

OoOoO

Black storm clouds filled the sky over Mt. Majesty; a heavy rain poured down on the purple peaks and the fruity shrubs around it. It was through these clouds that the G. O. S. Volcano descended, flying towards the mountain. The rockets on the sides that allowed the ship to break loose from the world's gravity weren't running; there was no reason, as they were returning home.

As the ship drew closer to the mountain, 666 got permission to dock. Red lights arranged to display a large number two flashed slowly to the left of center of the large mouth-shaped cave. A circular door stuck out, turned, and opened to reveal around tunnel, into which the ship slipped.

666 walked out of the captain's cabin onto the deck of the Volcano as it reached the end of the tunnel and slowed to a stop in its dock. The mechanical tuning fork lowered and locked into place and a gangplank extended. The Fire Brother walked across it and descended down the stairway at the end.

That's where Terri was waiting, holding a rolled-up piece of paper in her hand. 666 sighed. The Heartless sitting before him was nice, but he missed Panchico's over-eagerness. The orange Birdo had the energy of a level 10 nuclear hurricane and was naively loud, but her cheerfulness rubbed off on him a lot. However, believing that having a heart as pure as hers so close to the Heartless would just cause trouble, the Boss had left her with a good friend in another universe that would take good care of the slave girl.

666 took the paper and unrolled it. It was from the Boss, telling him what room the intruder was to be interrogated in. Giving the Bouncywild a thank you, he left the doomship docks.

OoOoO

Bowser started things off by spewing a jet of fire at them. The group scattered to avoid it.

"Surround him!" Riku cried. Each of the four party members took a corner.

"Ha! You'll have to do better than that!" Bowser taunted. "I'm more agile than I look!" He jumped repeatedly while spinning in place, sending out three shockwaves followed with spinning while spitting multiple fireballs. It was an effective combo; the heroes were too focused on avoiding the waves to dodge the fireballs; they all took at least one fireball directly.

"So fire's his game, huh?" Donald asked no one in particular. "Blizzard!" He waved his staff and several ice shards shot from it towards the turtle. Sora, in the opposite corner from Donald, launched a Blizzard attack as well. The attacks hit Bowser, who was steadying himself from his spin, but they didn't do very much damage.

"I've fallen in molten lava and came back for more. You honestly think those puny things would- ACK!" He was cut off as Riku took advantage of the Blizzard spells distracting Bowser to rush him and land a Way to the Dawn combo on his side. Sora also took the chance to move in and attack with the Keyblade.

Bowser took a lot of damage fast and just barely managed to escape into his shell. Once Sora and Riku stopped attacking and started to edge way, he started spinning in his shell, creating a mini-tornado, and dashed at Sora. The boy barely managed to Dodge Roll out of the way, but the Koopa kept going, bouncing off the ramparts like an out of control spiked pinball. "Look out!" Goofy cried.

"Thunder!" Donald quacked, firing lightning bolts at the kamikaze shell. Several missed due to Bowser's speed, and the one that did hit did next to nothing.

"I have an idea!" Sora announced. He positioned himself directly in Bowser's path and held the Keyblade like one would hold a shovel. "Stand back!"

"Sora!" his friends cried.

"Sora didn't move, barely blinked, as the spiky shell spun closer and closer. Goofy tried to rush forward to protect him, but Riku held the dog back. Bowser was mere inches away now...

And in a split second, everything seemed to slow down as Sora swiped the Keyblade upwards, hitting the edge of Bowser's shell and causing the spiked dome to flip over and land on the central spike, giving it the general appearance of a giant Bowser-themed top stuck in place as the spike dug a little into the stone room. The king's belly section was quite vulnerable.

"Everyone attack now!" Sora shouted.

Riku and Goofy rushed in and joined Sora in slicing and smacking the yellow belly stripes while Donald keep casting Thunder from a distance to rain lightning on it.

After a minute or so, a jet of flame emerged from Bowser's head hole, knocking back everyone long enough for Bowser to emerge and hop to his side to right himself.

Once he was back on his feet, he turned to Sora. "Not bad, kid. Now let's see what you do against a _real_ challenge!" From somewhere on his person, Bowser pulled out and threw in the air four black round bombs with eyes, wind-up keys, and feet. "Bob-ombs away!"

The bombs landed, lit their fuses, and ran as fast as they could (at a medium pace) after the members of the party. Also, Bowser ran a full-body charge at Goofy, who took a small hit to the side. Sora swung at the Bob-omb tailing him and launched it into Bowser, where it exploded and damaged the Koopa King, who had turned around to do another charge. It three him off balance long enough for Riku to get a combo it. Bowser regained balance and slashed Riku away with his large claws. That's when Sora launched another Bob-omb, allowing Goofy to get a few hits of his own in. The rest of the Bob-ombs exploded around then, too far away from the combatants to damage them. Bowser did a quick shell spin to gain some breathing room and three four more Bob-ombs.

"Goofy! Twister Fusion!" Sora called.

"OK!" Goofy replied. They grabbed each other's hands and started spinning around, creating a mini-tornado. The twister slammed into the new bombs, sending them flying in all directions; one flew right into Bowser, throwing the Koopa off long enough for Sora and Goofy to smash into him; this sent him into the air, where Riku unleashed a powerful combo. Sora ended the Tornado Fusion and joined Riku, attacking at the same time and sending Bowser flying headlong into the surrounding force,field, where he bounced off and landed stomach-down on the roof with a loud slam.

"Uncle! Uncle!" Bowser was quick to cry. The battle had ended.

Sora heaved a sigh of relief. "That felt good, getting back in action like that," he said.

Riku nodded. "I'm glad I haven't lost my touch by battling you all the time." He then smiled to show he didn't intend to insult. Sora happily returned it.

Bowser got up and walked over to the party. He smiled as well. "You're pretty good, kid. That was one of the my best fights in a good long while. You just might have the power needed to defeat the Game Over!"

"Thanks," Sora replied.

"Here, I got something for you." Bowser pulled out a key chain, with the red Bowser face icon on the end. "I call this 'Koopa King.' It looks like the thing on the end of your Keyblade. I don't have any use for it, so you can have it."

Sora took the key chain from Bowser and removed the Mickey head key chain, replacing it with the new one. Immediately the Keyblade morphed into a twisted shape colored red, yellow, and green. It was slightly shorter than the Kingdom Key and slightly heavier, but it felt more powerful. He stepped away from everyone else to give it a few experimental swings.

"It'll take a while to get used to the weight," he announced, "but it'll be a big help. Thanks again."

Bowser nodded. "And before I forget..." He pulled out a large yellow star with big black eyes and small balls topping each of its points. It glittered brightly, even in the dim light of Dark Land. "This is a Grand Star. If possessed a lot of power. You'll need it where you're going." He passed it to Donal. "Now, if you'll excuse me..." Bowser jumped and stomped the roof, causing the central slab to pop back up. The metal gate blocking the stairs opened and the force field disappeared.

Ludwig, Karma, and Kamek came out from the stairs. At the sight of Karma, Bowser growled, annoyed, and turned and walked away.

"That was a splendid battle, you four," Kamek praised. "I watched it from the gate. Very few people can take on King Bowser like that."

"Very impressive use of strategy as well," Ludwig noted. "My jawbone fell when you flipped King Dad over, Sora."

"You all did great," Karma summed up. "If you work together, I know you can put Yosie in his place."

"Thanks, everyone," Sora told them. "but how are we going to get to Mt. Majesty? Our ship is busted. We don't have a way to travel to other worlds."

"Not true," Bowser interrupted, not looking at them. "I've made arrangements to have you four on board an intergalactic transport, and a great expense too. So enjoy it!"

"Don't pay King Dad mind," Ludwig told the travelers. "He acts similarly whenever he and Karma are in close proximity."

"Hey down there!" a tiny voice called from above. Everyone except Bowser looked up to see a small yellow star-shaped creature flying down towards them. It's only visible feature besides its body were its black eyes.

"Hey, who are you?" Sora asked the star as it stopped next to him.

"I'm a Luma!" it cheerfully replied. "Mama sent me here to help you!"

"Mama?" Goofy repeated, visualizing an older star with wrinkles and gray grandma hair.

"Yes, Mama's very kind and she agreed to take you across the universe!" the Luma beamed.

"Cool! Let's get started!" Sora asked.

"OK! We're going to need to use that Grand Star you have. Everyone that's going, grab onto it."

Donald held out the Grand Star and the four friends each grabbed tight onto one of it arms.

"Now hold on!" the Luma called as it tapped the last arm and grabbed on as well. The Grand Star started to shine and slowly rise into the air. After a second or two, it got faster. After a short time, the heroes held on as tightly as they could as they rocketed off into the night sky.

"Good luck!" Karma shouted after them moments before they disappeared.

"You think we'll ever see them again, King Bowser?" Kamek asked his superior.

The king snorted. "Only if I'm unlucky," he replied as he stomped his way back downstairs.


	5. Chapter 4: Off Like a Comet

**Kingdom Hearts: Game's End**

**Chapter 4: Off Like a Comet**

After the Heartless had left, Mickey sat in a pitch black room for a line time before a large spotlight turned on and shone down on him. He was sitting in a wood chair to which he was chained, as if being in a straitjacket wasn't demeaning enough. To further taunt how helpless he was, his captors had chained his Keyblade to the ground next to the chair. Mickey tried to summon it, but his hands were caught in the straitjacket and he couldn't.

A strange sound, faint but growing louder every second, filled the air. Micky's head turned to see that strange fox-like Heartless from before, carrying a small flat screen TV monitor, no more than twelve inches in size. The creature stopped in front of him so Mickey was facing the screen as a sound behind the mouse suggested another enemy had entered. The door slammed shut as a red turtle in black armor stepped into view. He was carrying a microphone and webcam, which he attached to the TV.

The screen blared to life and the face of the pink shade-wearing fox materialized. "Well well well, what have we here?" he sang mockingly. "Mickey Mouse, huh? Ooh, I'm really scared." He then chuckled darkly.

Micky pulled against his bonds but they held tight.

"I hope you find the accommodations to your liking," the fox teased. "We do our best to make sure our guests are comfortable. Oh wait a minute, you're a prisoner." He chucked again at his own joke.

Mickey glared at the screen. "Any reason you didn't come and talk face-to-face?"

"And give you a chance to try and ram me? No thank you. Even though that chair should be bolted down."

"What do you want with me?" Mickey demanded.

"I want to know what you know," the fox replied. "I can't risk you running around with classified information on my operations."

"What makes you so sure I know anything?"

"I believe _I'm_ the one asking questions around here, rodent face. So start talking! What have you learned about the Game Over?"

"I don't know anything about your silly organization!"

"...666, where's the lie detector?"

"Uhm... The Bouncywilds went crazy and broke the last one about an hour ago."

"Ooh!" the fox groaned as he gripped his ears in frustration. He took a few deep breaths. "No matter," he spoke, seemingly calm, as the Heartless brought the screen closer to Mickey's face. "As they say, we have ways of making you talk..."

OoOoO

Sora saw they had left the world that looked like a mushroom they had seen earlier as the Grand Star took him, his friends, and the Luma towards a strange object floating in space. It was very hard to describe their destination; it looked like it consisted of a large ring-like platform that was decorated so half looked like an outdoorsy setting and the other like the inside of a small mansion. On top was a large pointy cone. A small ball of what looked like red light was in the middle.

The Grand Star slowed to a stop on a small balcony on the edge between the inside and outside. "Everybody off!" the Luma called, and everyone let go and landed on the platform. Suddenly the Grand Star spun quickly and shot off into the ball of light, causing it to grow bigger and turn orange.

Sora looked around in amazement. "Where are we? What is this place?"

"My guess?" Riku replied. "Our ride."

_**Comet Observatory**_

"What happened to the Grand Star?" Donald asked the Luma.

"Don't worry," it replied. "Mama will explain everything. She's right down this path!"

The friends walked down the wide path until they reached the end, where the world split off. There was circular pattern on the floor beneath a layer of thick glass; in the center was a large circle with a star in it; surrounding this large star were six smaller stars in circles. One of these smaller stars was glowing slightly and spinning slowly in place.

Two being stood on the edge of this design. One appeared to be human with shoulder-length blond hair, a bang covering one of her blue eyes; he wore a cosmic-blue dress that dropped to the floor and held a small wand with a star on the end. The other was another Luma, slightly larger than the one before as well as black with blue eyes.

"Welcome, travelers," the humanoid greeted. "This is the Comet Observatory, a flying, well, observatory and home of the Lumas. My name is Rosalina. I am the guardian of the cosmos. My job is to make sure all worlds remain in peace."

"And I'm Polari," the black Luma added. "I'm the oldest Luma that lives here and Rosalina's assistant."

"Are you Mama?" Goofy asked Polari.

Rosalina giggled like mothers often do. "No, the Lumas call me Mama. It's a very long story."

"Seems to be a lot of those around these worlds..." Donald grumbled.

"I'm Sora, and this is Donald, Riku, and Goofy," Sora introduced. "Bowser said that this place cold take us to Mt. Majesty."

"It can..." Rosalina replied, "and it can't."

"Huh?" all four reacted.

"The Comet Observatory is powered by the Grand Stars, which act much like rechargeable batteries. If the power runs out and the Observatory isn't in orbit around a world, we would be stranded as the Grand Stars recharge by feeding on a world's excess energy."

"So we have to stop for a recharge every now and again," Goofy replied.

"Not too long ago, the Heartless attacked us," Rosalina continued. "I was able to stop them before anyone got hurt, but they scattered the Grand Stars among the worlds between here and Mt. Majesty. The more we have, the further we can travel in one go. So we can't go straight to Mt. Majesty, but if we find the Grand Stars on each of the worlds on the way, we ill be able to reach that far world eventually."

"Let's get started then," Sora decided. "When can we leave?"

"Right away," Rosalina replied. "We can get to the next world with the power of the Grand Star you brought."

"Then let's go!" Sora said impatiently. "We have to save the King!"

"I'll alert the engine room," Polari informed and flew off towards the large cone above.

"What can you tell us about the next world on the path?" Riku asked Rosalina.

"Not much, I'm afraid," she replied. "There's so many worlds, I cannot possibly memorize them all. I remember that great speed is a very important quality, but that's it I'm afraid. Sorry I cannot be of more help."

"That's OK," Sora forgave. "We'll find out when we get there."

There was a lurch, causing everyone to stumble a little as the Observatory broke orbit around the mushroom world. Sora watched as it disappeared into the distance.

_Don't worry, Karma,_ he thought. _I promise you, I'll stop Yosie once and for all!_

OoOoO

Despite being a quarter of a foot shorter than Mickey, 666 still easily threw the mouse, unchained but still straitjacketed, onto the floor hard. It was the last link in a chain of fire attacks, which only grew longer and more damaging as Mickey kept quiet.

"This is starting to get exhausting, AWOL." 666 panted slightly as he spoke. "Save us both the trouble and tell us what you know."

"For the thousandth time," Mickey replied, trying to sound strong, "never!"

"That's only the _seventh_ time," 666 corrected.

"You were keeping track?"

666 half-sighed, half-groaned. He turned to the Heartless's screen as it flew up to him. "This isn't working, Boss."

"I was hoping we wouldn't have to do this," the pink fox replied, "but we have no choice. Let our new recruits talk to him."

"Right away, sir," 666 acknowledged and he hurried off, out of Mickey's sight. The screen turned to watch the bounded mouse.

A few seconds passed uneventfully.

Then the situation got much worse very fast. Several Shadows burst from the darkness and surrounded Mickey, turning him on his back and holding down his head, body, and legs. Another Shadow and a Soldier got above them and the Shadow held one clawed hand high over Mickey's chest.

Another robotic voice, similar to that Mickey had heard earlier but different, came from the Soldier. "At signal, subject has ten seconds to disclose requested information or we will make sure the loss of your heart will be as painful as possible. Go."

OoOoO

Polari volunteered to be the heroes' guide during their time on board the Comet Observatory. "Do you wish to rest up or do you want to get something to eat first?" she asked as she led them into the half that resembled an interior.

Sora rubbed his stomach a little. "I am a little hungry..."

"Me too," Donald added. Everyone could hear his stomach grumbling.

"Then I'll take you to the kitchen and get your stomachs filled up," Polari decided. She guided them off onto a small branch and up a small tower, where they entered a small cozy room with a roaring fireplace. In the middle of the room was a very low-sitting star-shaped table. "Please have a seat," she said, indicating the pillows around the table. Everyone sat down on a pillow, Indian-style. "Now, think hard about what you want to eat, and be sure to concentrate!"

Sora closed his eyes to focus, thinking of a small stack of chocolate-chip pancakes topped with maple syrup. He found it easy to maintain the image.

"And lunch is served!" Sora opened his eyes when he heard Polari talking and found that a plate of pancakes, just how he visualized them, had materialized on the table in front of him! He glanced around at everything else that had appeared. Riku had gotten a large Ceaser salad with cherry tomatoes. Donald had a salmon patty burger with mustard and pickles. And Goofy got...

"A hot dog?" Donald asked his friend.

"Yup," Goofy replied as he picked up the ketchup-covered wiener. "If there's anything I've learned during the adventures we've had together, it's a dog-eat-dog universe." Everyone laughed as he took a bite.

Everyone ate their meal heartily, and commented that it was one of the best meals they ever had. As they left the kitchen, Polari explained that the main foodstuffs aboard were Star Bits, solidified globs of celestial goo that tasted much like honey. Lumas ate Star Bits to help them grow up into planets and maybe even galaxies.

Polari took the four friends to the bedroom near the back of the ship. The décor was focused on the color purple and there were some small cots. "We will arrive at the next world in about a half-hour," she announced. "A good nap in the meanwhile will do you a world of good."

"Thanks, Polari," Sora replied as he hopped into a cot. The other three followed suit and they all fell quickly asleep.

OoOoO

"Thank you," the fox said to the Shadows as the took the plastic sphere containing a slowly spinning heart from them. "You are dismissed." The Heartless scampered out of the room.

The fox turned around. "Oh Terri," he singsonged, "I got you a new toy..." Her head perked up from where she was lying down as he rolled the ball on the floor. He chuckled as she pounced it and started to play with it. While he could prevent the Heartless from wanting the hearts of him or the other operatives of the Game Over, he couldn't completely suppress their hunger for hearts in general. He knew that Terri would love playing with her new toy. The plastic was a kind his scientists developed that was guaranteed to withstand even dynamite.

He sat down in his chair , watching Terri toss the ball around. _And the best part is,_ he thought, _we won't be bothered by that infernal mouse for awhile..._

OoOoO

Mickey had been lost in darkness before, but never quite like this. It was the same black with his eyes closed or open; in fact, he wasn't sure whether they were open or not right now. He couldn't feel his body; he couldn't even move. He could feel himself flying headfirst towards who-knows-where, yet at the same time it felt like he wasn't even moving at all.

He tried to remember what had last happened. He had remained silent for ten seconds, he recalled. The voice said "Don't say we didn't warn you," and the Shadow's claw came down. Mickey closed his eyes as he screamed with unbearable pain... and then, nothingness.

Mickey recalled that Sora once became a Heartless. Did that just happen to him? It was hard to think at all.

And so he continued to drift into the darkness.

OoOoO

"Wake up, Sora!" The young man thought it was Kairi, but it turned out to be Polari. "We've arrived!" the Luma announced happily.

"I'm up, I'm up," Sora said, and Polari moved to wake up everyone else. In a couple minutes, they headed outside and saw the world they now orbited. It was another world they had seen on the way over, the blue one with the city and the space station.

They headed around to the area with the star design on the floor where they first talked to Rosalina. When they arrived, Polari returned to her side. A large blue holographic screen floated behind them, but Sora couldn't quite make heads or tails of what it displayed.

"You all had a good rest, I presume?" the princess of the cosmos inquired.

"We sure did," Sora replied. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

"So what world is that?" Riku asked, indicating the world they were floating above.

"It is called Mobius," Rosalina replied. "It is a strange world filled with many adventures. It was almost destroyed once by one Dr. Gerald Robotnick, but thanks to the efforts of many of its residents, it was spared a catastrophic fate."

"The next world is too far away on our current power supply," Polari interrupted. "We have determined that there is a Grand Star on it, somewhere in the area called Mystic Ruins. We know you have a rule against mettling in the affairs of other worlds, but the Mystic Ruins are quite large and the Grand Star will be very difficult to find without some inside help."

Sora nodded. "But how do we get down there?"

"We have a device called a Launch Star that could send you halfway across the universe with enough power," Rosalina said. "It'll be able to take you down safely. Just walk to the end of the path." She pointed with her wand the path the group had taken when they had arrived on the observatory.

Gonald, Goofy, and Riku, after saying their thank-yous and good-byes, immedated headed off, but Sora remained behind.

"Is something wrong, Sora?" Rosalina asked.

"You said that your job is to make sure the worlds are peaceful," he started, but she finished for him.

"You want to know why I wasn't there when you were fending off armies of Heartless?"

Sora nodded.

"Because I thought you were doing splendidly on your own. If I had gotten involved, would you have become as strong as you are now?"

Sora thought for a minute. "No, I suppose I wouldn't have."

"Hey Sora, hurry up!" Riku called. Sora turned to see him and the rest of the group at the end of the path. He looked back at Rosalina, who nodded. Sora turned back and ran to catch up.

OoOoO

"Wait wait wait wait, the Comet Observatory _moved_? You sure you're not getting a false signal?"

"Yes, Boss," 666 replied nervously, "and the Keybearer and his friends are on board. They're on an indirect course to Mt. Majesty, going from world to world."

"Figures that just as soon as I solve one problem, another arises..." The fox swiveled his chair around and booted up the laptop computer on the desk. After a few minutes of waiting for Windows XP to load, he brought up the screen he needed, which greatly resembled the screen on the Comet Observatory. "...Hm. At the moment, they're at Mobius. That's not much closer than Pilt is. Doesn't seem like too much of a problem. Yet."

"But Boss, those worlds are the ones we scattered the Grand Stars about after the Heartless stole them from the observatory. If those brats recover them..."

"I know, I know. We'll do the only thing we've left to do."

"What is it, Boss?"

"Simple. Stop them, by placing forces on all the other worlds. 666! Alert all doomships they'll be departing soon, then move my new prototype invention to the auditorium and gather all the Heartless and Nobodies there. It's time to wreak havoc and we can stop those interlopers yet."

"Right away, sir! 666 out." The turtle saluted, and the TV screen went blank.


	6. Chapter 5: Scrambled Eggs

A/N: Another potentially lousy battle scene approaching. This time, though, we get it over with earlier.

**Kingdom Hearts: Game's End**

**Chapter 5: Scrambled Eggs**

No matter how hard he would try, Sora would never quite bring himself to believe just how they departed from the Observatory. There were two Lumas at the end of the path. One of them transformed into a large orange star-shaped apparatus; Sora guessed that this was the Launch Star that Rosalina had mentioned. The other Luma said that all they had to do was spin around in it and it would take them where they needed to go. Riku went first; he stood in it and spun around, and was launched headfirst towards the world like a rocket, leaving a trail of light behind him. Donald went next, followed by Goofy. Then Sora took the ride; the trilling experienced of hurling through the vacuum of space headfirst he would later find very difficult to describe. The landing was soft; Donald hadn't gotten out of the way before Goofy landed on him, and they were just getting back up when Sora crashed on them both. Riku watched the three moan and clamor to their feet, wearing an amused expression.

They had landed on the mini-plaza in front of a train station in a large city. Across the road behind them was a beach. A hotel was on the left, the entrance to an amusement park on the right. Several humans, much like Sora and Riku, were walking around, too busy with their own business to pay any need to the creatures that suddenly appeared in their midst.

_**Mobius**_

"'Station Square Train Terminal'" Donald read from the sign above the station entrance before turning to the rest of the group. "Station Square is probably the name of this city we landed in."

"Where do you suppose the Grand Star could be?" Goofy asked.

"Maybe if we ask around?" Riku suggested. "Perhaps someone might have seen it."

"Good thinking, Riku," Sora replied. "Let's split up and meet back here in one hour."

The other three nodded and they all departed in their own direction.

OoOoO

"Attention, Heartless and Nobodies of the Game Over," the fox announced into the wireless microphone as he walked onstage before a sea of dark figures. "You have been chosen to travel to other worlds to cause chaos. While you will not be allowed to consume the heart of those worlds, you will be allowed to do anything else you want, up to and including messing with the laws of physics.

"However, there is the matter of transportation. We only have five ships and even with the subships, your combined weight will have slowed down the whole fleet enough so that by the the time you reach your destination, the enemy will already be _here_.

"Thankfully, however, I, your commander, SC, have come up with a solution to this predicament." From his pocket he pulled out a small ray gun the size of a child's water pistol. "This gun undoes a process that will compact you into cards for easy transport. A process done by this machine here." He indicated the large device on stage that was twice his size. There was a large funnel on one end and a slot the size of a playing card on the other.

To demonstrate. Terri?" He quickly clapped his hands twice. The Bouncywild slinked onto the stage and stopped next to her owner. "In." SC commanded, pointing at the funnel. Obediently and eagerly, Terri bounded headfirst into the large cone.

SC walked calmly past the funnel to a large red lever on the side. "Observe," he spoke to the audience as he grasped the lever with both hands and pulled it down. The machine quickly came to life. Several gears turned and many parts visible on the outside of the machine moved, their grinding producing a mechanical symphony. After several moments, a loud "ding" sound filled the room. At the note, the machinery stopped, the red lever slid back into its default place, and a black card with the fusion Heartless-Nobody icon imprinted on it popped from the slot. The fox walked over to the machine and plucked it from the slit, holding it up for the crowd to see.

After a moment's pause for the "oohs" and "aahs" he was hearing in his head to finish, he threw the card like a shuriken, causing a corner to get stuck in the stage. In the blink of an eye, he drew the ray gun and fired a black bolt of energy at the stuck card. There was a flash of black much like how Heartless materialize. When it faded, Terri stood there, not a strand of fur out of place.

"As you can see, the process is painless and reconstruction is instant and perfect," SC told the crowd. "And it is through this method that you will be distributed across the worlds. Now, if everyone would please form a line leading onstage..."

OoOoO

Sora hadn't had any luck so far. He had asked several people if they had seen a large yellow star around and everyone either said "No I haven't. Sorry," or pointed up at the sun, which didn't help at all.

He checked a nearby lock on a lamppost. Fifty minutes had passed, so he figured he should probably return to the train station and hope the others had better luck. He started off when there was a strange metallic sound that caused him to freeze.

_What was that...?_ he wondered.

Then he noticed the large shadow looming over him just in time to Dodge Roll out of the way of the large mechanical foot.

Sora quickly took in the quickly-peaceful-turned-chaotic scene. A giant mechanical four-footed walker mecha was marching down the street. Judging by the fact it was crushing parked cars and people were fleeing from it in terror, not to mention it was dropping bombs in the street, he figured that it was not welcome here.

This judgment proved correct when a strange voice sounded, amplified, from the top of the walker, out of Sora's sight. "I, Dr. Eggman, claim Station Square in the name of the Eggman Empire!"

With that, Sora thought, _Well, I know I'm not supposed to interfere, but... looks like this city could use a hero right now._ He drew his Keyblade and, after deciding where to attack the walker, ran into the shattered street.

He waited for the walker to drop a bomb and batted it up at the main body. It would've been difficult with the Kingdom Key, but the Koopa King gave a large and quite necessary power boost that made it much easier.

The bomb hid the side of the cockpit, causing the machine to stop. Then it tilted so Sora could see the driver, who glared down at him. It was a bald middle-aged and very round man wearing bodysuit of red, yellow, and black, along with white gloves, abnormally small sunglasses, a pair of gray goggles with green lenses, and a big pink nose with a large bushy orange-brown mustache. The hero guessed that this peculiar human was Dr. Eggman.

"Why you-" Eggman started as he turned his seat around, but stopped short when he saw Sora. "Huh?"

Sora remained silent, holding the Keyblade in his normal battle pose.

"Pardon me," Eggman said to Sora. "I thought you were someone else. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a city to conquer."

"No way!" Sora shouted and rushed the walker, leaping into the air and chaining several combos to the joint of one of its back legs.

"Buzz off, pipsqueek!" Eggman shouted as he backed the walker up a little, causing Sora to miss and fall down to the ground underneath the huge machine. The doctor then had the walker stomp the ground, sending out a blue shockwave that Sora jumped over. The nero then noticed that the star-shaped pad on the side of the stomped foot was glowing. Figuring this was a weak spot, he struck it with the Keyblade. This caused the attached leg to become inoperable and the cockpit lowered into range. "No way! I can't believe this!" Eggman shouted as Sora shifted his target to the cockpit and began hacking away at it.

After several seconds of this, the leg finished auto-repairing itself and Sora landed on the ground as the cockpit rose out of range. Frustrated, Eggman backed up a whole block, dropping bombs so Sora couldn't follow. "Get a load of this!" the doctor shouted as the two turrets on the cockpit spat out a volley of six missiles. Sora just barely managed to Dodge Roll and jump a few of them. He then swung the Keyblade at the last missle and sent it back at Eggman, although the force almost knocked him down. "Oh no you don't!" Eggman replied. He fired another volley, one of which harmlessly destroyed the returned missile and the other five headed for Sora.

They boy dodged the missiles and ran for the walker. When Eggman fired a third set, he dodged those too. The machine rushed forward, dropping bombs, obviously in hope that Sora would rush past it into the explosions, but Sora caught on and reversed direction. "Pesky little brat!" Eggman shouted as two of the walker's feet stomped, one after the other. Sora hit both once he cleared the shockwaves and then started on the cockpit until it got back up.

"I haven't the time to bother with you!" Eggman shouted as he ran forward to try and get away, dropping loads of bombs. Sora couldn't keep up with the walker, so he launched the bombs back at it like before to slow it down enough to get underneath. The walker sopped and stomped with three legs, but it was too easy for Sora, who hit the three pads and lowered the cockpit into range for another bashing.

The machine couldn't take this level of abuse and it started to malfunction. Small explosions all over as it started to tremble and shake. Sora barely got out of range of the final and largest explosion.

The wreck of the walker smothered, covering the road. Sora looked around, but Dr. Eggman was nowhere in sight. _Where...?_

"You annoying little brat!" Eggman's voice sounded from above. Sora looked up to see that part of the walker's cockpit had broken off and transformed into a pod-like plane with Eggman at the controls. "You scrambled my Egg Walker!"

"A lame name _and_ a lame joke?" Sora teased. "Are you for real?"

"I'll show you what's for real, you insolent-" Eggman was cut off in mid-sentance when a blue streak flew in from nowhere, slammed into him, and sent him spinning. The streak landed next to Sora, where he could see it was a creature, half-human, half-blue hedgehog., much like Donald and Goofy. The eyes were emerald green and the only clothes it wore were white gloves and red-and-white hi-top sneakers.

"Hey there. Eggman giving you a hard time?" he asked Sora. He sounded about fifteen or sixteen.

"Nah, I'm fine," Sora replied.

Meanwhile, Eggman regained his balance. "Sonic you blue rat! You've interfered in my plans for the last time!"

"How many times have you said that to me?" Sonic asked jokingly.

Eggman half-yelled his response. "Just you wait, Sonic the Hedgehog! I have a brand-new power source and the robot I'll build around it will destroy you once and for all!" With that, the plane shot out into the sky and out of sight.

After watching Eggman leave, Sonic looked at the wreckage of the Egg Walker. "Looks like most of my job was done before I got here."

"It wasn't all that tough," Sora replied as he hefted the Keyblade over his shoulder. "I've definitely fought worse."

"_You_ destroyed the Egg Walker?" Sonic turned to Sora. "To be honest, I find that hard to believe."

Sora spied an unbroken piece of street pavement nearby. After looking around to make sure no one else was around, he smacked it hard with the Koopa King Keyblade, cracking it to match the rest of the scene.

"OK, maybe you could have..." Sonic reconsidered after seeing this.

They walked and talked for several minutes. Sora told the hedgehog about he and his friends were from another world, about the Heartless and Nobodies and what they could do to a world, and how they were looking for Grand Stars to stop them. Sonic told the boy that Dr. Eggman had been trying to take over Mobius with his machine army for years and that he and his friends were the only ones able to stand up to the mad scientist. He hadn't seen anything resembling the Grand Star, but one of his friends, a fox named Tails, was a mechanical wiz that was second only to Eggman and might be able to help find it.

It was at this point that Sora stopped short, remembering something. "Oh man, I completely forgot! I'm late to meet my friends!"

"Where are you meeting them?" Sonic quickly asked.

"The train station," Sora answered, "but-"

Sonic grabbed Sora's hand. "Hang on tight!"

Sora wasn't exactly sure just what happened next, but one thing was certain: Sonic was fast. _Very_ fast. Everything passed by in a multicolor blur, the air they passed buffeted his face and all he could hear was the sound of rushing wind. And then in a moment it stopped, and they were standing on the same area Sora had arrived on the world in next to Riku, Donald, and Goofy.

"Whoa..." Sora reeled from the slight dizziness caused by the rush of speed.

"Are you OK, Sora?" Goofy asked.

"Where were you?" Donald demanded. "We were starting to get worried!"

"And who's your new friend?" Riku asked, glancing at the blue hedgehog.

"The name's Sonic!" the rodent replied. "Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"Guys, this is Sonic," Sora introduced. "Sonic, these are my friends Riku, Donald, and Goofy."

"Heard you guys were looking for these Grand Star things," Sonic said. "My friend Tails might be able to help you. His workshop is in the Mystic Ruins. We can catch a train there." He pointed a thumb at the station.

"Sounds good," Sora replied. "And I'll be able to fill you guys in on what kept me on the train."

"Then let's hurry!" Donald insisted.

OoOoO

SC walked along the line of five willing commanders and gave each of them a utility belt; each one had a card box holding a full deck of converted Heartless and Nobody Cards and a holster holding a clone of the small ray gun that would turn the cards back.

"Each one of you will take one doomship," he instructed as he marched back and forth in front of them like a drill sergeant. "You will each go to a different world between here and the Comet Observatory, starting with the closest to the enemy. When you've unleashed all the Heartless you have on the world, return here to restock. Don't spare the fuel; without agents on Mobius, we don't know how close the enemy is to finding the Grant Star; for all we know, they've found it already. Don't sit around to watch either; free all the Heartless you have in an even spread over the world and then return immediately." He stopped marching and turned to face them. "Am I clear?"

"Sir, yes sir!" they replied in unison.

"Excellent," SC responded as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Now go! And long live the Game Over!"

"Long live the Game Over!"

OoOoO

The Mystic Ruins area looked every different from Station Square. The area was a high cliffside, bordered with a high drop into the rocky-looking water below and rock walls on the walkable area. A rise near where the walls met gave way to a large lake. On the left wall, a series of boulders of varying sizes stood before a large hole in the wall, which seemed to give way to a tunnel.

There were only two structures in sight that looked at all man-made. One was the train station, which was a high stilted structure to reach the tracks, which stood on a high brick-and-mortar bridge. Sonic pointed to the other, a large metal building with many visible moving parts that sat on a large ledge that pointed out into the sea; it would make a great runway if it was paved.

"That's Tail's workship down there. I'll run ahead and tell him you're coming. See you there!" The hedgehog quickly became a blue blur as he dashed down the spirialing steps to the ground.

"Whoa, he's really fast!" Goofy observed.

"That's nothing," replied Sora. "Try being a passenger."

They started walking down the steps. When they reached the bottom, Goofy stopped.

"What's wrong, Goofy?" Sora asked.

"I just remembered," Goofy replied. "Didn't Polari say that the Grand Star was somewhere in the Mystic Ruins?"

"Oh yeah!" Sora exclaimed. "Augh, I completely forgot!"

"We _all_ forgot," Riku corrected solemnly.

"You mean that hour asking and questioning in Station Square was a waste of time?!" Donald quacked.

"I don't think so," Sora answered. "If we hadn't spent that hour that way, we probably wouldn't have met Sonic and we'd still be wandering about lost in the city."

"Speaking of which," Riku interrupted, "we should probably keep going to the workshop."

Sora nodded and they all set off.

OoOoO

The Game Over doomship Starstruck was the fastest of the syndicate's fleet. For her outing this time, 666 was again assigned to captain the orange-hued flagship as it departed from Mt. Majesty's docks. During the Game Over's first attempt to conquer Pilt, the Starstruck's engine was blown out by a bolt of lightning and it fell into the ocean. Thankfully, the wreck was completely recovered by the time the comet hit, and only a month or two later she was back in full operation.

As the Starstruck's fairly-recently-attached warp turbines activated and kicked the ship out of Mt. Majesty's gravity, 666 went to the captain's cabin. For a moment, he thought he saw the boss in the chair behind the desk, but he remembered that he wasn't on board. This was a difference he was slightly uncomfortable with; usually _he_ stayed behind at Mt. Majesty while the _boss_ lead the ships in the field, but the roles had reversed recently. The boss has become more a couch potato these days, locking himself up in the CET-XX mainframe computer's room doing DAD knows what and watching the Clue VCR Game's video constantly. It seemed Terri was his only companion. This reminded the Fire Brother of Panchico, which depressed him even further.

He regained his composure. He couldn't worry about the boss now; he had a job to do. He moved to the computer terminal behind the desk and brought up the map of the worlds. Since the Starstruck was the fastest, it was assigned to go to the the farthest of the target worlds, which the computer called Dreamland. What better place to spread darkness, he joked to himself. He sent course correct0ions to the engine room via the speaker-tube near the back of the room and sat down at the desk. There he encountered the first problem: there was a long trip ahead of him, and he was already bored.

OoOoO

When Sora and his companions arrived at the workshop, Sonic was with another anthropomorphic character, this one a yellow-orange fox; he was half a head shorter than Sonic, wore similar gloves and shoes, and had ocean-blue eyes; the most interesting feature was that two large fluffy tails instead of one flapped behind him in the slight breeze.

"Hey guys, you certainly took your time," Sonic greeted. "This is my friend, Tails. Tails, these are the guys I was telling you about, Sora, Riku, Donald, and Goofy."

"Hi there!" Tails greeted. He sounded much younger than Sonic, about eight years old, but he seemed quite mature for his age.

"Hi!" Sora replied for the group.

Tails walked swiftly over to them. "Sonic filled me in on why you're here and whot you need. Something about a Grand Star, right?"

"Right," Sora replied. "We think it's somewhere in the Mystic Ruins. Do you know where it is?"

"Sorry, I don't," Tails replied. "But I can create a device that will be able to find it."

"So everything's OK then," Goofy supposed.

"Not exactly," Tails replied. "I drew up some preliminary blueprints and the device will locate the Grand Star by searching for a similar energy signature. Which means that in order for me to construct it, I need a Grand Star to set what to search for. You do happen to have one already, don't you?"

After a moment or two of silence, Riku called a huddle.

"We have that Grand Star we got from Bowser," Goofy whispered to the other three.

"But it's melded with the core of the Comet Observatory," Sora rebuffed, "and we don't even know if Rosalina will be willing to let it go so soon after recovering it."

"Besides," Riku added, "how are we supposed to ask her?"

"Sora!" a small voice called from above.

Everyone looked up just in time to see a yellow Luma fly down to them.

"Who's this?" Sonic asked, joining Tails.

"An acquaintance," Riku replied.

"What's up, Luma?" Sora asked.

"Mama wanted me to give you something!" The Luma spun around and out of midair pulled a star-shaped hand-held device. It was orange-yellow and had a rectangular screen in the middle with a large yellow button below it. He gave it to Sora.

"What is it?" Sora asked as he looked it over.

"It's a video communicator," the Luma explained. "Press the button below the screen and it links right to the Comet Observatory so you can talk to Mama anytime!

Well, that's all I have! Good luck finding the Grand Star! See you later!" The Luma spun around again and shot up into the sky and out of sight.

"How convenient," Riku muttered to himself, looking at the communicator, half-believing the whole affair.

Sora pressed the button and after a moment, Rosalina's face appeared on the screen. "Rosalina, can you hear me?" he asked the image.

"Loud and clear, Sora," Rosalina replied. "I see my gift got to you safely. I can even see the Luma I sent returning right now. I take it testing it out isn't the only reason you called?"

"Uh, yeah," Sora replied. He tried to take on a polite tone, as this could be a touchy subject. "See, we met someone down here who can build us something to help us find the Grand Star, but he needs the Grand Star we got earlier to do it. Can you send it down to where we are?"

Rosalina was silent for a moment. "I believe I can, but be sure to return it as soon as possible. To do that once you're done with it, take it outside, throw it up in the air, and tell it to go home. If that doesn't work, you can use the communicator to call me and I can send a Luma down to pick it up. I must go. I will send the Grand Star to you right away." The screen went dark.

"What do we do now?" Donald asked.

Sora stuffed the communicator in one of his outfit's pockets. "We wait," he replied with a shrug.

"Aw man, I hate waiting..." Sonic griped.

Thankfully for Sonic, they didn't have to wait long. Within a minute, the shining Grand Star descended from the heavens and nestled next to the group.

"Cool!" a big-eyed Tails exclaimed.

"Whoa," Sonic stated. "I can feel tons of power in this thing."

Tails plucked the Grand Star out of the air. "I can build the locating device now, but I'm going to need some time. Maybe you can show Sora and his friends around, Sonic."

"That's a great idea!" Sora encouraged.

"Yeah, tell you what," Sonic said as Tails hurried with the Grand Star off into the workshop. "How abut I take you guys to see another friend of mine? He doesn't live that far from here."

"Gawsh, that sounds great!" Goofy replied.

"Let's go then!" Sonic replied as he jogged ahead, waving his hand in a come-along gesture.

OoOoO

Terri was still playing with the heart in the ball as SC entered his "office," locking the door behind him. He wondered why he chose to personally raise a Bouncywild of all Heartless; there were several varieties that were much more docile and easier to tame, even without their newfound intelligence. He supposed that the bow they wore made them cute without being chibi. And they were orange. His favorite color.

He opened up his laptop and started up a few programs. The doomships were well on their way; they would arrive at their destinations on schedule. By his estimate, each one would be on the return trip in two hours, two and a half at the most.

Now onto other business. He attached a webcam to the laptop and started looking for the communications connection he needed to the only world with a Grand Star the doomships couldn't cover: Mobius.

OoOoO

After departing from the workshop, Sora and the gang followed Sonic into the cave they had seen in the mountainside. There was a strong wind blowing inside the tunnel that they rode up to another cave. Sonic led them past and icy blue and white door along the tunnel until they emerged on top of the cliff. It was a sheer two-mile drop to the ocean's surface below; thankfully the ledge was very wide and the terrain not very hilly. The most intriguing part of the view was that, connected to the top of the cliff by a wooden bridge, there was what appeared to be a small island with circular ruins on it, and the island in question was...

"Floating?" Donald quacked.

"Yep," Sonic replied. "See that large green gem in the middle? That's the Master Emerald. It keeps the island afloat. That's where my friend is."

They jogged across the bridge to the island. They started to walk up the stone steps in front of the ruins up to the where the Master Emerald rested when a red figure leaped in front of them.

"Hold it, intruders!" it cried in an adult voice. It was another anthropomorphic animal, this time an echidna with purple eyes. His gloves looked like baseball mitts with spikes on the knuckles, and his feet bore red and yellow shoes with green socks.

"Chill, Knux," Sonic reassured. "They're with me."

The echidna made a sound like "hmmp" but he accompanied it with a nod and put his fists down.

"Knux, this is Sora, Riku, Donald, and Goofy. They're travelers passing through here," Sonic introduced. "Guys, this is Knuckles, the guardian of the Master Emerald."

Donald chuckled. "Knuckles?"

In a burst of speed, Knux was holding a fist under Donald's bill like how movie characters hold an opponent at swordpoint. "It's an appropriate name," he said very plainly.

"I get the point," Donald gulped.

"How long have you been guarding the Master Emerald?" Sora asked as Knux pulled out.

"All my life," the echidna replied. "It's the duty of my linage to protect the Master Emerald from those that are evil like Dr. Eggman."

"Why?" Goofy asked, curious.

"The Master Emerald is extremely powerful," Knuckles explained. "See, there are seven gems in the world called Chaos Emeralds that resemble the Master Emerald. Each of the Chaos Emeralds have a near infinite amount of power. However, the Master Emerald is able to negate the powers of the Chaos Emeralds."

"Whoa," Sora exclaimed in surprise. "Now _that's_ powerful!"

"Whoa is right," Sonic replied. "Eggman's always trying to get his hands on the Emeralds to fuel his doomsday machines. So it's my job to find them first."

"A-_hem_."

"Oh and I get some help on occasion."

"Better," Kunx said as he waled up the steps to the Master Emerald. "Keep working on it, Sonic, and until you can be humble about your accomplishments, like I am."

"You, humble?" Sonic mocked as he zoomed up to his friend. "Ha! The day you become humble is the day Eggman starts wearing Cream's daisy chains and starts prancing about in meadows singing sweetly!"

Knuckles growled as he made a motion like pulling up a shirt sleeve. "I'll show you humble, you blue-haired hog!"

"Bring it, rad red!"

Soon the two were lost in a cartoony dust cloud while sounds of petty fighting filled the air. One could almost see the anime seatdrops on Sora and his friends as they watched the small battle with wide eyes.

"Um.... do they do that often?" Sora asked no one in particular.

"...Maybe we should go see if Tails finished that radar yet," Riku suggested. The others nodded and , leaving the fighting creatures behind, departed back for the workshop.

OoOoO

Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik watched as his Egg Keepers and Egg Paws slaved away at building his new weapon around his new power source. This large star he found in the jungle a few days ago had emitted energy readings much stronger than any one of the Chaos Emeralds. It was so powerful he had to sea it in a plexiglass sphere to prevent his robots from exploding from overload. The battle machine they were constructing with the star as the battery would have more than enough power to destroy station square and make way for Eggman Land.

He chuckled. "I'll show that Sonic yet..."

He was snapped out of his thoughts by one of the nearby computer monitors, formally blank, bursting into static. The sound caused him to turn away from the construction site to investigate, and as we watched the screen in awe the image started to come into focus to reveal a pink furry face.

"...sting, testing, one two three," it said, with a false voice mocking the sound of a young woman. "Trolls in a tantrum cause terrible trouble. Broadcasting on two-way channel. Dr. Eggman, please confirm."

Eggman walked over to the monitor, somewhat wary. "This is Dr. Eggman, the world's greatest genius. Who are you?" His eyes glanced over the image. "This isn't Tails, is it?" The figure did look very similar to the fox he had come to loathe nearly as much as Sonic.

"Mr. Prower I am not," the pink fox replied, this time in a more natural-sounding voice, most likely his real one, sounding like a young man. "Don't rack those brains of yours; we've never met. We don't even occupy the same world."

"Answer my first question, then," Eggman demanded, growling slightly with impatience. "Who are you?"

"You can call me SC. I am the of the Game Over. Do not ask who we are or how I managed to contact you; I prefer to keep my contacts on a need-to-know basis." SC leaned slightly, giving Eggman the effect he was looking behind him. "So, _you're_ the one who has the Grand Star now..."

"Grand Star?" Eggman repeated as he looked over his shoulder to see his new creation in progress, the shining yellow light from the large star standing clearly against the dark gray of the base walls.

"Surely you've learned how powerful it is by now?"

"Of course I have," Eggman stated as he turned back to the monitor.

"Someone else on your world knows how powerful it is too," SC continued. "A young man with spiky brown hair, swinging around a giant key like it was a sword. Perhaps you've met him already...?"

Eggman's mind quickly flashed back to that boy who had destroyed his Egg Walker not an hour ago. "Perhaps I have... Why do you want to know?"

"He as as much my enemy as he is yours, my dear doctor, and he seeks the Grand Stars to stop my plans. With the Grand Stars, he is capable of traveling between worlds and if he continues he will eventually reach mine. I cannot allow this. As such, seeing as how I am unable to ensure he is trapped on your world personally, I merely request of you to ensure this _for_ me."

In spite of the strange way this fox spoke, Eggman understood his meaning. "If I say yes, what's in it for me?"

"How does a second Grand Star sound? He already has one, and my intel says it's on the planet at this very moment. Take it, and he'll be stranded, far from my base and out of my fur. I don't care what you do with him, just so long as he is unable to escape your world."

Eggman grinned and chuckled at the prospect of more power. "We have a deal then, Mr. SC. I'll take that thorn out of your side for you."

"Thank you, Doctor. I'll be sure to keep this in mind later." SC's face disappeared behind a wall of static and the monitor turned off.

Eggman turned to some of the worker droids and told them to prepare his Egg Mobile. There was another Grand Star for him to claim.

Infinate power, just for taking care of a small kid? A powerful kid, but a kid nonetheless. This would be a piece of cake.

OoOoO

SC cut the connection, smiling to himself. It was a risky move he just made, revealing himself like that to a potential enemy, but he assured himself that it would be worth it. If Eggman pulled off his half of the deal, he could rule the universe with nary a thing standing in his way. If the doctor failed, well, then his Heartless would their their chance at Sora, raising their morale and making them even more willing to serve the Game Over.

_Either way,_ he summed up in a nasty tone as he leaned back in his chair, _I win._

OoOoO

Sora and his friends took a full ten minutes to get back to Tails's workshop. They entered through the door into a small hanger which held a large blue biplane with yellow trim, currently off. Tails aws setting on a stood at a desk against the far wall, a lamp shining on the desk and toolbox sitting open next to him.

"We're back, Tails," Sora announced, not intending to scare the fox.

Tails looked over his shoulder. "Hey Sora, everyone," he greeted. "You're a little early. I'm going to need another few minutes to finish up. Feel free to hang out in the main room if you want." He pointed over to the door on the wall opposite the main hanger door. "Y'know, I never expected to see you back here before Sonic. Where is he?"

"He got into a fight with the friend he was introducing us to," Riku replied.

"Knuckles, I'm guessing?"

"How'd you-?" Donald started.

"I saw you heading towards Angel Island as I came in. Don't worry, Sonic and Knuckles quarrel all the time."

"How come?" Goofy asked.

"A few years ago, Eggman created a giant space station called the Death Egg, which packed enough power to allow Eggman to dominate the world. Sonc and I first met on our adventure to stop it. We did, and it crash-landed on Angel Island, although we thought we destroyed it. The force of the impact pushed Angel Island out of flight and into the sea. When we picked up some strange Chaos Energy readings, we flew over in the Tornado."

"Is this the Tornado?" Riku asked as he gently laid his hand on the hull of the blue biplane.

"No, that's the Tornado 2," Tails answered. "Eggman destroyed the original Tornado some time ago." He sighed before continuing. "Anyways, we flew to Angel Island, and we were attacked by Knuckles, who thought we were trying to destroy his home. You have to forgive him; he can be a bit gullible, something Eggman often makes use of. We stopped Eggman from relaunching the Death Egg again for a while, but Eggman stole the Master Emerald and manage to take off. With Knuckle's help, we finally managed to destroy the Death Egg."

"So, Sonic and Knux fight because of a bad first impression?" Sora suggested.

"Sorta. They've forgiven each other for that. It's hard to explain. Sonic and Knuckles are very different; Knuckles is like a rock that sits in one place while Sonic is a leaf that goes wherever the wind takes him. They have very different views on life."

Sora nodded and glanced at his white-haired friend. "Guess we'd understand that, huh Riku?"

"Our points of view aren't _that_ different," Riku countered.

"If you can please wait in the main room now..." Tails said, with the slightest air of impatience in his voice.

"Oh sorry, Tails," Goofy replied for the group as they went through the door. The furnishings of the main living room resembled those standard of one-room log cabins. There was a couch, a TV, a carpet, a bed with orange-yellow sheets, a mini-fridge, and a fireplace (currently unlit). Sora was also relieved to see the Grand Star floating gently in the corner like a giant ornament.

Everyone went to do something different. Doand and Goofy sat on the couch and watched TV. Riku went to bed for a quick nap. Sora looked over some newspaper clippings on a nearby desk; they were all about either Sonic or Tails and included several unique feats. "Super Sonic Saves Station Square from Chaos Creature," yelled one headline. "Planet Saved from Space Colony Collision," announced another. The picture was of the space station Sora had seen orbiting Mobius back on the Comet Observatory; its caption read, "Space Colony ARK: designed and constructed by Dr. Gerald Robotnik, grandfather of Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik, over fifty years ago."

_Sonic and Tails sure have been through a lot of adventures,_ the boy thought as he shifted through the articles. _Sort of like me and my friends._

After pushing a few more articles aside, Sora found a group photo of several anthropomorphic figures. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were in it, front and center. The others were quite varied; there was a pink hedgehog in a red dress that was trying to hug Sonic, a young tan-colored rabbit in an orange dress, a blue-and-yellow water-like creature wearing a red bow tie, a black hedgehog with red stripes wearing a moody bored expression, a very feminine and curvy bat in a black and pink jumpsuit, and a large round purple striped cat holding a fishing pole in one hand and a frog in the other.

Sora quickly put the picture down when he heard someone enter the room. Tails had come in, walked around the couch, and picked up the Grand Star. "Just another minute or so," he told Sora as he returned to the hanger. He nodded in response.

A short time later, while a bored Sora was looking through the mini-fridge for a snack, Sonic came in, bruises and cuts everyone and even a black eye. "Hey Sora, could you pass me an ice pack?" he asked. The boy pulled a blue gel pack from the fridge and tossed it over to Sonic; he promptly caught it and put it to his black eye. "Much better," he said with a relieving sigh.

"What happened?" Sora asked as Sonic sat next to Donald and Goofy on the couch.

"After a while, I noticed you guys had left. I figured you'd come back here, so I followed. That started about twenty seconds ago."

"You're pretty fast, Sonic. Just how fast _are_ you?"

"Pretty fast, Sora. A lot of people call me the fasting thing alive. The only thing I know that's faster than me is one of Eggman's robots, Metal Sonic. Thankfully, if I can't outrun him, I can usually just bust him up."

Sora nodded, although Sonic wasn't looking at him, and except the sounds of the TV, it was quiet for a while. It was when Riku was just waking up and the news report was about the Egg Walker attack earlier that day when Tails's voice sounded from the hanger. "I'm done, everyone! Come look!"

Everyone got up and filed into the hanger, where they gathered around the fox standing next to the Tornado 2. He was holding a square flat onyx black plastic panel with two buttons labeled L and R.

"It looks like a GBA SP," commented Sora. "I have a white one of those at home."

"That's because it is," Tails explained. "Or, at least, it _used_ to be. I took one and modified it into a Grand Star Radar. Take a look!" He flipped it open and turned it on. A crosshair made of green lines, surrounded by concentric circles, appeared on the screen much like one would imagine a radar display, although there was no sweeping green line circling it. There was a yellow slowly flashing blip in a star shape right next to the center, indicating the Grand Star next to Tails.

"The direction is relative to the direction of the unit," Tails continued. "The top part of the screen is ahead of you, the bottom part is behind you, and so on. The batteries are at full strength too, so you should be able to use it for a long time. Just remember to turn it off on occasion to save power."

"Sounds like it'll be really handy! Thanks a lot, Tails!" Sora said as he took the radar from Tails, turned it off, and put it in one of his pockets.

"Great work, little buddy," Sonic praised, gently slapping the fox on the shoulder in a friendly manner.

Tails chuckled sheepishly. "Aw, it was nothing..." he said humbly.

"Let's get the Grand Star back to Rosalina," Sora suggested. Everyone else nodded.

"What did Rosalina say to do?" Goofy tried to recall. "Take it outside and tell it to go home? Was that it?"

"I believe it was," Riku answered. "Let's try it."

Nodding, Sora picked up the Grand Star and headed out of the workshop, everyone else following him. The Keyblade master stepped forward a few steps ahead of the others others. He took a deep breath in preparation for the toss.

It was just about then that a missile streaked from above the workshop, where no one was looking, and caused the ground beneath his feet to explode.

"GAH!" Sora shouted as the explosion threw him forward, almost sending him off the side of the cliff, and the Grand Star was tossed into the air. From the source of the missile flew Eggman in his plane from earlier, which sprouted a large metal five-fingered claw beneath it. The claw grabbed the Grand Star as it reach the apex of its flight.

"Eggman!" Sonic shouted.

"The Grand Star!" Goofy shouted.

"Sora!" Donald quacked, rushing to help the fallen fighter. Riku did the same.

Wasting no time, Eggman shot away towards the far mountains and was quickly out of sight.

"Shoot!" Sonic shouted to no one. "He's too high for me to reach!"

"We have to get it back!" Goofy declared. "Without it, we're stuck on this world!"

Thankfully, Sora was mostly unhurt from the blast. Donald and Riku were helping him to his feet when he got an idea. "The radar!" He pulled it from his pocket (it, too, was undamaged) and flipped it on. The yellow star was flying at a slow and steady pace away from the center of the screen.

"Great idea, Sora!" Donald replied.

"Let's juice then!" Sonic said. "We have to get that Star back before Eggman gets a chance to use it!"

A/N: I think there might be two more chapters on Mobius: the journey to follow Eggman into his base and the "boss fight" so to speak. However, there might also be just one, since I'm skimming by the parts that would mostly be regular gameplay if this were a KH game, which most of Eggman's base will be. With any luck I didn't do too badly, especially on the Egg Walker battle; suggestions on how to improve my battle writing would be greatly appreciated. Next chapter will definitely take longer since I haven't finished actually writing it, so... odds are this won't be updating anytime more this summer. Sorry. I'll see what I can do, though.


End file.
